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Finnish diplomats’ phones infected with NSO Group Pegasus spyware

bleepingcomputer.com

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Re: Finnish diplomats’ phones infected with NSO Group Pegasus spyware

#4
I propose that any article like this don't refer to it as "NSO spyware", but instead refer to it as "Israeli spyware".

The reality is that while NSO Group is a private company, it has deep links to the Israeli government and generally doesn't allow it's services to be used against the interests of the Israeli state.

Hiding behind a corporate name to maintain Israel's reputation in international media isn't really okay.

Re: Finnish diplomats’ phones infected with NSO Group Pegasus spyware

#5
post #2

How does it get installed? I'm imagining some spy stealing the phone and installing it.

Depends on version of phone but usually either receiving some message (there has been some zero-click iMessage exploits) or clicking a link on one.

for example https://citizenlab.ca/2021/09/forcedentry-nso-group-imessage...

Re: Finnish diplomats’ phones infected with NSO Group Pegasus spyware

#6
post #2

How does it get installed? I'm imagining some spy stealing the phone and installing it.

No, they use zero-day exploits in common media formats. The spy sends you a message containing an image or pdf, your device parses it, is exploited, and then removes the message, before there ever is a notification about it. You will never know that it ever happened.

For example, see FORCEDENTRY, which is one of theirs, and the technical deep dive of it is about the most amazing piece of technical writing released last year: https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-deep-dive-i...

Re: Finnish diplomats’ phones infected with NSO Group Pegasus spyware

#7
post #2

How does it get installed? I'm imagining some spy stealing the phone and installing it.

Contrary to popular belief, iPhones and Android phones have really poor security and new exploits are discovered all the time. So a properly formatted text message is all that's required these days.

It's like in the dotcom days when 90% of the web was open to SQL injection.

Re: Finnish diplomats’ phones infected with NSO Group Pegasus spyware

#8

I propose that any article like this don't refer to it as "NSO spyware", but instead refer to it as "Israeli spyware". The reality is that while NSO Group is a private company, it has deep links to the Israeli government and generally doesn't allow it's services to be used against the interests of the Israeli state. Hiding behind a corporate name to maintain Israel's reputation in international media isn't really oka…

No post body was provided.

Re: Finnish diplomats’ phones infected with NSO Group Pegasus spyware

#9
post #2

How does it get installed? I'm imagining some spy stealing the phone and installing it.

No, they use zero-day exploits in common media formats. The spy sends you a message containing an image or pdf, your device parses it, is exploited, and then removes the message, before there ever is a notification about it. You will never know that it ever happened. For example, see FORCEDENTRY, which is one of theirs, and the technical deep dive of it is about the most amazing piece of technical writing released la…

I can't believe that all text messages aren't stored somewhere on the NSA (or equiv.) server (so it should be easy to quickly find the zero-day after a single attack). They probably just aren't motivated enough to expose the zero-days associated with it.

Re: Finnish diplomats’ phones infected with NSO Group Pegasus spyware

#10
post #8

I propose that any article like this don't refer to it as "NSO spyware", but instead refer to it as "Israeli spyware". The reality is that while NSO Group is a private company, it has deep links to the Israeli government and generally doesn't allow it's services to be used against the interests of the Israeli state. Hiding behind a corporate name to maintain Israel's reputation in international media isn't really oka…

Quoted post unavailable.

Painting critics of the Israeli Government as anti semite is among the most used smearing tactics to damage their credibility. Therefore, by the same reasoning, you could be accused of acting as a shill for the Mossad.
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